Google funds OGG Theora

Google announced via its open source blog Friday its commitment to an ARM optimized version of the OGG Theora video codec in an attempt to create a video standard for mobile devices.
"We need a baseline to work from –– one standard format that (if all else fails) everything can fall back to," said Robin Watts on the open source blog.
The OGG Theora codec is a variation of the VP3 codec and was developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation in 2004. Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome 3.0.182.2, Opera 10.5 and SeaMonkey 2.0 support the format in-browser. VLC, Helix Plaer, FFmpeg, Songbird and all GStreamer or libxine-based players support the format.The player as well as development tools are freely distributed here. The OGG Theora codec takes its name from Theora Jones, Amanda Pays' character on "Max Headroom."

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An employee of Google has expressed himself regarding the disadvantages of OGG Theora in comparison with H.264 in a discussion on the mailing list of the web hypertext application technology working group.

In times of YouTube and Co., a free video codec offers a good base for video enjoyment on the Internet -- independent from the interests of commercial providers. After a long development and some criticism, Ogg/Theora seems to be getting there. Yesterday saw the release of codec version 1.0, with Ogg in container format.